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As Tione approached the kitchen,the aroma of coffee drifted out to him.
“Hello?” he called as he passed through the doorway.
A smiling face appeared around the end of the pantry. Megan, looking fresh and perky, her hair in a bun atop her head. “Good morning. I made you coffee. I hope you like it strong and sweet.”
His nose crinkled. “I prefer unsweetened, but I’ll take what I can get.” Her face fell, and his stomach dropped in response. “It smells great.”
“I’ll remember that for tomorrow.” The edges of her mouth curved up, but her smile seemed forced. “Tee likes his coffee the way it comes out of a pot.” She paused. “Is it all right for me to call you ‘Tee’?”
“Of course.” He leaned against the counter. “You know I don’t expect you to be in here every morning. Especially not early enough to make me coffee.”
“I know.” She brought a mug over and handed it to him. “But I’m an early riser, and old habits are hard to break.”
Raising the mug, he sniffed. Yes, it smelled like coffee, but all he could see was a mountain of whipped cream above the rim. Who knew what concoction hid beneath?
“What is this?”
“It’s acafe viennois. A shot of espresso in milk, topped with cream.”
“Wow.” He eyed the drink with distaste. It looked like something that would be served in the kind of snooty establishment he’d never been welcome in. He considered tossing it down the drain and making his own, but Megan was watching him with such eagerness that he didn’t have the heart. Cautiously, he sipped. Then he moaned. If it was possible to come from taste alone, he did that, too. The drink was heavenly. Rich coffee with a perfect silky texture that slid down his throat and warmed him from the inside. And that cream… It wasn’t any old whipped cream, that was for sure. He didn’t know what she’d done, but it was divine.
“It’s good, right?” she said, breaking into his thoughts.
He wiped foam off his upper lip and licked his finger clean. “I take it back. You can make this coffee for me any damn time you like. Fuck, that’s good.”
Her expression was one of absolute glee. “I’m so glad you like it.”
“Like it? I want to marry it.”
“I’m pretty sure that would be illegal,” she teased, drinking from her own mug. When her tongue flicked out to lick cream from the corner of her mouth, he almost moaned again. It should be illegal to think what he was thinking. “What are we making this morning?”
“Nothing fancy. We’ve got cereal and toast to set out, and breakfast sausages and hash browns to cook.”
“Great. I’ll put out the continental breakfast while you work on the cooked part,” she said, and got to work. While she searched the cupboards, Tione opened the divider between the kitchen and the dining hall so they could talk while she was in the other room.
“Tell me more about your bakery,” he said.
“It wasn’tmybakery,” she corrected, her back to him as she set bowls, plates and cutlery on the sidebar so he couldn’t see her expression. “What do you want to know?”
Whatever details she was willing to share with him. But he didn’t want to pressure her, or poke at a sore point, so he tried a different tack. “How did you get into baking?”
The frying pan sizzled as he added sausages to hot oil. She returned to the kitchen and grabbed the orange juice from the refrigerator.
“Dad died when I was little, and Mum had her hands full putting herself through school while working and raising us. My brother and sister couldn’t have cared less whether we had homemade baking in the pantry, but I did.” She ducked her head, like she was embarrassed. “Home baking says someone cares, you know? And I wanted to make sure my family always knew I cared.”
His heart cracked a little. If that wasn’t the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. “I don’t think anyone would ever accuse you of not caring.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
As she carried tea and coffee equipment into the dining hall, he loaded hash browns into the oven. “Would you ever want your own bakery?”
She glanced over. “Can I tell you a secret?”
Hell, yes. “I guess so.”
“That’s my life goal. But I don’t want a typical bakery. I want a cupcake shop with dozens of different flavors. Experimenting with new flavor combos is one of my favorite things to do.”
“You can experiment here all you like,” he told her. “We’d love to be your guinea pigs.”
